The Marshall Plan

The Broncos are well on their way on mishandling another player rift. Today the Broncos suspended Brandon Marshall for conduct detrimental to the team. The suspension runs through the rest of the Pre-Season, but this beef could go on all year.The Broncos are already a mediocre team with Marshall. Without Marshall they instantly become The AFC version of the Detroit Lions.

While Marshall is acting immature, can you blame a player in the NFL for trying to strike while the iron is hot? Marshall has no future guarantees, no long term contract, & his salary this year ($2.4M) is obviously well under his value for a WR coming off 2 seasons of 100 receptions & a Pro Bowl. Marshall is a 25 year old WR with hands, speed, blocking ability with the ability to break tackles who has clearly outperformed his contract. Brandon wants the Broncos to address his contract, the Broncos was Brandon to perform one more year before they address the contract. A common dispute with teams & players since no contracts or moneys are guaranteed. So while I despise Marshall for acting like a jerk, I'll defend it on this blog because it is truly the only leverage NFL players have to get paid.

Year after year there are dozens of players making this decisions. The Collective Bargaining Agreement is so pro owner, that the owners can actually lock out players & not pay them until the owners get there way. Players can't hold out, because they get fined (Marshall still gets paid during this suspension). Yet players can be Franchise Tagged & have their salaries controlled basically their entire careers, with NO GUARANTEES, in a sport so violent that the average player has a 6 year shelf life. If management can cut players for underperforming contacts, why can't players have some sort of avenue, to address outperforming a contract?

Management in Denver should address this contract & pay Marshall something reasonable to what he has done. Pat Bowlen has always been a reasonable owner. When Dan Reeves & John Elway didn't get along, Bowlen squashed a trade that would have sent Elway to Washington. Bowlen failed to step in during the Cutler fiasco, he should step into this one & get Marshall signed long term.

Josh McDaniels is really not warming himself up to me. He's already ran one star out of town carelessly pursuing a QB with only 1 good year under his helmet (Matt Cassel). Is Marshall next?